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Monday, July 25, 2016

Dog Days of Summer Edition

What does that mean, actually? I know it refers to the hottest days of the summer, but what does that have to do with dogs?

Well, National Geographic comes to my rescue again. Here's what they have to say:

"It turns out, the dog days refer to the dog star, Sirius, and its position in the heavens. To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe."
So there you have it. We're in the dog days - keep those whines coming.

I'm all about sitting around or checking things off the to-do list, depending on one's mood on any given day. Good for both of you!

I'm going with sloth today. Hubby had some bloodwork samples taken this morning. They come to the house, which is great, but it was much earlier than I would have been awake on my day off. So I had coffee on the balcony with a good book, and now we're watching mysteries on Acorn.

AW: successfully sorted all the apples, and selected a crate full for cold room storage.

W: I managed to peel and chop a single ziploc bag's worth of apples, and then my arms said "Nope. This is not happening anymore," and I stopped. I'll attempt to make a little apple butter tonight, but other than that, I'm waiting until tomorrow. (Mr. Q is picking up a peeler/corer/slicer doohickey tomorrow, as well as more jars so that we can do some canning. And I'm putting him to work tomorrow.)

AW: I was working on the apples alone, because Mr. Q was cutting shelves to turn our front closet into a pantry! (We have two coat closets that are only feet from each other, and are both on either side of the kitchen. And so the big closet by the back door -- which is the door we mainly use, because our garage is in the back alley -- is acting as our only coat closet, and we've been shoving storage stuff into the front closet, ever since we moved here.)

QWP - your harvest has been amazing so far!! A pantry near the kitchen is so handy - you will love it.

W: This final week before vacation begins is tough. I have a bunch of loose ends to tie up before Sunday, and very little energy to do it all. I hit the snooze button twice this morning and only then opened one eye in the sincere hope that it was all a mistake and I could go back to sleep. Not so much.

AW: I have a massage booked for later this afternoon. I will get all this done...then after Sunday worship it's VACATION!

Sue, I hope that the last few days before vacation go by quickly and smoothly for you.

W: Little Miss E has had too much fun times and overstimulation, and she is weeping about irrational things now. But we must soldier on: family pictures, in a town 45 minutes away, this afternoon.

AW: pantry project will be nearly free! (Just the cost of screws.) Mr. Q found a board in the back of the garage, which was exactly (to the millimeter) the length of three pantry shelves, and then another one that was the right size for all the supports. And there was a full can of paint in the cold storage room, from whenever the previous owners painted all the walls. So: previous owners have provided everything we need for the pantry project (and there's plenty of leftover scrap wood for the boot shelf Mr. Q also wants to build).

Our next Vice President gave a moving tribute to my friendly acquaintance this morning at a breakfast. The video is up at bluevirginia.us (I'm not linking to it so the blogger can't track it back here.)

Hooray on the free shelves, QWP! And my sympathies on soldiering on in the face of irrational meltdowns. We live in that town most of the time.

Liz, sorry about your friends' deaths. It's hard when they come close together, and when unexpected.

Baboos and grandma and I had a horrible shopping day yesterday morning (though we scored a "winter" coat for $7, used and in good condition). Today, the Baboos and I stopped on the way home from grandparents' house and had a lovely time shopping. Go figure.

W: news from Sweet's foot appointment was discouraging. She has club feet, and they are (always have) turned inward. Up until now, they have always been able to stretch to the neutral/correct position. But not now, which means the bones have grown in the incorrect position. So, surgery is in her future. She's not really having any trouble with them, except for the occasional fall and even more occasional pain. The choice was do surgery now, which would probably need to be repeated after she grows more, or just wait and see. We're waiting and seeing. I hate the thought of more surgery for her (last one was 4 years ago), especially a more extensive and painful one. :(

AW: we survived pictures, and E fell asleep (at the VERY earliest time that she can fall asleep and it be a night time sleep) in the car on the highway home, and stayed asleep when we put her into bed. We thought we were both missing tonight's church prayer meeting, since we were going out of town, but with the early return (kiddo wanted to go home instead of going for ice cream, because she was too tired), and zero bedtime routine, I sent Mr. Q. (And now I have PBS on, and am watching the Big Thing, although I just missed the VP.)

Hugs to you esperanza, and to Sweet. xoxoxo Yay on the good shopping trip!!

QWP - that's so great about your pantry shelves. I wonder if the previous owners left the board there just in case you wanted to make shelves...nice if they were thinking ahead - well, nice either way!

Sorry about the upcoming colonoscopy, kathy. It's not pleasant, but so necessary for good preventive health care. I had the obligatory one at age 50.

Yay Liz on the potential job! Appendages crossed....

The Big Thing was amazing. I was out early in the evening but saw the big name speakers of the night when I got home.

I went to a little league baseball game last evening. A friend's son is on the Ontario team - they are now going to Vancouver for the National Finals!! Very exciting!)

What a great feeling that I am proud of my President! DID YOU SEE THAT? HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!

Oy, that hug! And the zingers from every speaker. WHOA! And they all ALL ALL made not just a case for voting AGAINST the other guy (which, yeah), but for voting FOR our candidate. And it was a substantive case. Full of details and examples and her amazing website.

I am maybe a bit excited. I might just be a little fired up. I could possibly be ready to go.

AW: Hubby and I went to our service ont@rio location (right across the street!) to renew his health card. He had his picture taken, all the paper work updated, and a temporary card signed and good to go. Total time - 20 minutes door to door. I got my wallet out to pay for the renewal and the nice woman chuckled and said, "There's no cost for renewing. You're all set!" Score!

I'm just going to say hooray for some recent big decisions striking down impediments to voting. Go, team. Everybody needs to vote!

Q for Ms. Demeanor: Someone who loves me sent a fancy expensive rain jacket for our upcoming (Sept.) visit to Europe. And, [a] this person is having financial worries, and [b] I have a perfectly good one with more pockets, even. Ideas on a graceful decline?

"Thank you so much for thinking of me! I already have one just like it, and I hate to see this one not get used as it should. Would you be terribly offended if I returned it and took you out to dinner with the refund?"

Sue: hooray for the fast renewal! (You guys have to go in and renew your health cards? We just get sent renewal stickers every few years. But our health cards don't have pictures: just our driver's licenses/provincial ID for those who don't drive.)

W: we got a questionnaire from E's preschool, so that the teacher knows how to be prepared, and my anxiety went through the roof, answering it.AW: since then, the kid has finally started working on dressing herself and using the bathroom independently. I straight-up bribed her with ice cream today, to get her to try to dress herself. Also AW: I feel plenty affirmed in my choice to keep E with the 3 year olds, instead of pushing her into the 4 year olds and getting her into kindergarten the next year. She's just barely ready to do the two mornings a week with the 3 year olds. (But is very eager to go to school! If she was hesitant, I'd just keep her home for another year.)

Our experience, ymmv, was that the kids took hold of self-care (and other) tasks with devotion when they learned that other kids at their place were doing them. Also, I'm not opposed to some minor bribery here and there.

You guys help make me feel better. We recently discovered that E thought we'd be going with her to preschool (or, at the very least, that she'd be WITH Mr. Q, since he teaches at the same school. Her response was to refuse to be independent, and to want to do even less independently in the bathroom.)

QWP - our province switched to photo health cards in 2000, for added security, initially. The bonus effect, it turns out, is that it's another piece of photo id in addition to driver's license and passport. The original photo health card is (I think) $20 - after that, free. So, for those who need photo id to vote, it's a good option.

I'm also not opposed to some minor bribery. :)

kathy, I like Liz's suggestion about the rain jacket.

As for the mountain o spice, I don't recall having done that, but then I don't spend a lot of time in the kitchen. As you know, it's better (much better) if I steer clear of that room entirely.

Sue, that's really nice that you guys have another piece of photo ID, and that it only has one cost (unlike a driver's license or passport). Honestly, I wish we had something like that in our province.

The rain jacket talk worked out. Somehow, this person failed to remember that I've lived in a rainier climate zone for a few decades. Now, just have to figure out how to return it without driving to the dreaded mall.

Liz, they don't have much to go on. And you bring the thunder. :)

Swear this is true: my beloved was vacuuming a piece of the yard this morning (preparing to build more of his rock retaining wall). And now he's vacuuming the remains of cat bark, which is actually pretty useful, even if it's noisy.

I can return the item by shipping it back! But wow, lotta hoops -- including a phone call to the person who sent it, while I waited on hold. And etc. Whatevs, it got done, I have the pre-paid postage label.

W: was hit in the head with an umbrella (child was WILD today). Severe headache. It was the tender spot on my head, where I've had a couple of injuries before. I wouldn't say that I'm fully into concussion land, but I'm not a happy camper. At least the kid is asleep now. She was challenging today. (She was really good for my parents yesterday, while Mr. Q and I went to a wedding, but she's always a little extra needy and defiant the day after she's been away from us.)

Oh boy, does she know that it was unacceptable. (I THINK it was an accident. She was playing with it in the back seat of the car, after church, and I think it was an errant swing. But the umbrella was confiscated, and she had a time out, because she was warned about being careful and then got wild and dangerous.) My doctor keeps monitoring the concussion situation. I'm still in the window where mild impact (and this was only a little bit of a hit) throws me for a loop.

Two classmates of mine in high school were play sword fighting with umbrellas junior year. One of them accidentally stabbed the other in the eye with the point of his umbrella, causing a stroke. The other guy was out of school in rehab for months. Came back to school in the middle of senior year in a wheelchair, was able to walk across the stage with us at graduation. As far as I know, he never did get full speech ability back, nor full use of one of his arms.

Whine: the job fell through. The board is anxious about how it will look to the rest of the world that they are PAYING me to raise money for them.

Anti-Whine: I came home, called a friend who is the Executive Director of a different organization and asked her if she'd like to have me raise money for her through the month of August. Split 50/50. She jumped at it. I'll meet with her Wednesday to get a messaging dump.

Liz, so sorry about the job! Can't they just call you chairperson of finance or something, and then pay you a salary. There's a name for the fundraising job.... what is it? Chair of Development? I forget, but it exists...-NL

I'm so sorry so hear about the job, Liz! I am confused as to why it would look bad to have them pay you to fundraise: there are plenty of people who have such a job (development is the title I've heard too, NL).

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